Global Domination

Sunday, May 22

Sundays can be quite relaxing. For that matter, sundaes can also be relaxing, though if you have one of the intensely sugary sundaes which comes with 4 spoons and a lot of ice-cream and chocolate brownies in it, then it's not as relaxing. In fact, such a sundae can leave you feeling exhausting as the sugar buzz finally subsides and you drop out of the false sky you'd temporarily been thrust into.

However, this was a Sunday. I was back from my mini tour of Scottish places, with a silly challenge to complete, and I had a girlfriend who needed to revise. So, my solution was to potter around the house disturbing her by tidying various things up. I don't think it caused her too much distress.

Towards the end of the day, we decided to sit down and watch a movie. The 5th Element, which I'd never seen, was being broadcast on Channel 4. It was suggested that we watch it. However, I wasn't keen on watching the movie as broadcast. In a recent shopping trip for DVDs, a bizzare group discount, and the recommendation of my shopping partner (the girlfriend with whom I was now having this discussion) led to me buying the 5th Element on DVD. I don't want to watch on TV something which I own on disc. The TV version would have adverts in, and maybe it would be cut for TV and just not be as good. It wouldn't have extras in it... not that I felt the DVD had any extras on it either, but there was a principle at stake. The solution? We watched the DVD at around the same time as the broadcast. In fact, we started the DVD after the film had started broadcasting on Channel 4.

The 5th Element is a really good movie. I like Bruce Willis, and I've enjoyed his work ever since I saw him in what now looks like a god-awful programme, but which was, at the time, the very wonderful "Moonlighting". I think that Mr Willis manages to portray a sense of repressed pathos in all of his parts that always makes me both wish I were him and be glad that I didn't have to be him.

Anyway, after the movie had finished and we'd enjoyed the utter silliness of it (I'm not going to describe it - if you've not seen it then find a way of seeing it and you'll understand.) we turned over to Channel 4 to see how it was doing. Despite the broadcast starting before we did, we'd beaten it to the finish and had probably enjoyed better surround sound or something.